Recap: January 2020

January for us, as for most people I think, was a time of resetting and getting back to routine. I generally love the Christmas season, so it always kinda surprises me how ready I am for it to be over by the end of December.

January in Los Angeles has beautiful weather. The air is clear and crisp, but we still get sunshine and 70 degrees. Great time to visit!

There’s something oddly re-energizing about routine and productivity. Getting back to work also motivates me to eat better and work out more too.

Which is why we decided to do dry January again, something we’ll likely do every year because it is such a great reset.

I struggled for most of 2019 with getting to the gym consistently. It wasn’t necessarily due to lack of motivation (although once you lose the routine of working out it it’s always difficult to get back into it), but for me it kept coming down to logistics.

Sean and I share a car, which for 90% of the time is no big deal. I work from home, we don’t necessarily need two cars. But for the 10% of the time that is annoying (getting to the gym being one of them), it is very annoying and becomes a dealbreaker to getting that task done.

But there is always a way, and as a former personal trainer, I know that it simply comes down to priorities. I didn’t make working out a very big priority in 2019, so it’s something I’m working on for 2020.

Since the car situation won’t change anytime soon, and we live that #startup and #actor life (code for keeping monthly expenses down), I got back to workouts that aren’t necessarily my favorite, but are still effective - like at-home routines and running. I also leveraged girlfriend meetups to get workouts in (hikes, yoga class), which is always more fun.

First look at “Fuego”, one of the film projects Sean was involved with last year.

In looking through my January camera roll, it was very apparent that this month was about getting back to the grind. Despite doing things and hanging out with friends, we have zero photos with people in them. It’s all Duke, and for me random screen shots of home decor inspo.

So we’ve got some work to do in February in getting better about documenting us and not just the dog.

One of the few non Duke photos we have is a first look/screen shot of Fuego, one of the film projects Sean acted in last year. He plays a Republican CIA agent, and had to cut his hair short and shave for the roll (something that always takes me like 3 days to get used to), but he looks the part! Sean met the writer/director at the gym, so has been getting regular updates on the editing. Will be interesting to see how it does on the festival circuit later this year.

Fantastic and fascinating read, highly recommend!

My January book of the month was Educated, by Tara Westover. One of my girlfriends, Miriam, kept bringing it up as something I must read. So I finally bought it at the Amazon store when we were at Century City killing time before a movie at the beginning of the month.

The story is about Tara’s life in Idaho, growing up largely secluded from the world in a conservative Mormon family. The stories she tells are outrageous and seem like they belong to someone from 1890, not from someone who is two years younger than I am. Definitely recommend it.

Another important part of getting-back-to-routines for us, has been Duke’s routine. Dogs, and especially puppies, behave much better when they have a set schedule. December threw this off for Duke because Sean would be home at random times, we’d need to take him to the dog park at off hours, and we were gone during time-frames we are normally home.

Sean was sent all the SAG-AFTRA screeners so that he could vote on the nominees. Duke pulled them off his desk and went to town.

Duke is a very sensitive and perceptive dog, so when things aren’t aligned with what he expects for the day, he gets anxious and acts out. We had lots of barking alerts on our Furbo dog cam, and a few chewed up blankets and desk items as a results.

As the month progressed and routines were re-cemented, we did noticed some new positive behavior which was exciting. Normally whenever we leave, regardless of the time, he barks for a solid 30-45 minutes. Luckily our building is old and solid concrete, and you can’t really hear him once you get a few feet from our unit. But toward the end of the month, when I would leave around 10am to go to one of my book keeping gigs, he’d just keep sleeping and didn’t bark at all.

Progress…

It also helps that he’s getting older (dogs progress in dog years, so a month for a puppy makes a big difference). 9 months for Duke has had some good boi progress, we’re liking it!

Trouble-marker face (he’s been chewing his blanket).

Returned this immediately… way too easy to chew! — Returned this immediately… *way* too easy to chew!

Hogging the whole bed during Saturday family nap.

How he sleeps all day. He’s got a pretty good life.

New Carhart bed (yes, they make dog stuff!). He loves it!

In a lot of ways January felt like it was 76 days long. In others, it’s crazy that we’re already one month into the new decade… I’m working on not being wowed or freaked out by the passing of time. Instead I’m trying to focus on what I do each day, and how I can spend my time more effectively as it pertains to larger goals.

It’s always a work in progress, but for February, I’m going to work on more people photos, keeping up the fitness game, and drinking more water.